Within the last two decades, domain wall manipulation became one of the undetachable partsof spintronics. The interaction between spin-polarized conduction electrons and localizedmagnetic moments in terms of giant magnetoresistance in 1988 and in terms of spin-transfertorque in 1996, launched an avalanche of experimental work on current-inducedmagnetization dynamics. Despite the very intensive research in this field, many fundamentalquestions stay unanswered. For example, the origin of the phenomenological parameters alphaand beta, being at the heart of the description of the magnetization dynamics, is not fullyunderstood. Usually, in the experimentally studied systems the micromagnetic parametersare fixed, so that it is impossible to verify their role in magnetization dynamics. For example,changing parameters like magnetization or angular momentum, domain wall width, etc.,would shed more light on the understanding of the field- or current-induced domain walldynamics process. In the first part of my work I will describe an alloy of Gd1-xCox with acomposition, i.e. magnetization, gradient. The alloy composition is chosen in a way that amagnetically compensated interface is present in our thin films. Such a thin film serves as anideal model system with a continuous change of magnetization at a constant temperature. Thissystem is the subject of a study of field- current- and light-induced magnetization dynamics.In the second part of the work, Pt/Co/AlOx trilayer, a system already shown to be suitable forfast and reproducible domain wall manipulation is studied. I experimentally tested and provedthe hypothesis connecting the spin-transfer torque efficiency with a transverse magnetic fieldhaving as origin the Rashba field at the Co interfaces.
Domain wall dynamics in magnetic nanostructures : Effect of magnetic field and electric current